Illuminating my world, one mind at a time!

Street education 101

You can read all the books in the world and still never be able to learn all you need to learn about life. Because truth be told, not every lesson of life will be documented on paper. Some things you’ll just have to learn by experience or observation.I learned one of those vital lessons recently. It had to do with relating with the police ,which I must admit I am quite a rookie in that regard.Well, it went like this: A friend gave me a lift in his car one afternoon. He instructed his cousin to drive behind while he took the lead. After we drove past a junction we noticed that my friend’s cousin had been stopped by the police. In their usual extortion mode, an officer jumped into the passengers sit while his superior stayed in another car instructing my friends cousin to follow his lead.So we followed them into a side street.Then my friend called his cousin and asked him to stop the car so they could” settle the police”. It was then that the drama began. The officers claimed my friend’s cousin had beat the traffic light( which wasn’t true by the way). But my friend, instead of arguing with them ,agreed that it was possible that it happened and that he had innocently made the same mistake in the past. So he calmed the resistance from the officers and proceeded with more sweet talks.In the end he pleaded with the officers to let his cousin off. They agreed for a fee as usual. and so he came back to the car , picked a few bills out of his wallet and handed it over to the officers,after which they drove off. When i asked him how much he gave them, he said N700. I was shocked ! I thought they wouldn’t accept anything less than N5000. When I asked him how come they accepted the N700 from him he said, ‘if you nor know you go fall mugu. Dem know say I know what’s up na im make dem take am waka. If na person wey do like novice, na N15k be dat o!”Hmmm…..talk about street education! Where on earth would you ever read in a book how to get out of a police traffic violation frame-up with just N700? Not even in an Encyclopedia !I learned a valuable lesson that day on how to deal with the police without “falling mugu”.lol!